Lead Us Not Into Temptation

I am not tempted to commit adultery or murder or steal.  I am periodically tempted to compare myself, my children and my family to others.  Close friends are not immune to this.  There is always going to be someone working harder, in a better program, at a better school or on a more exclusive team.  Deal with it. After visiting with someone and learning how great their kids are at this and that and how advanced they are at blah blah blah, my knee jerk reaction is to come home and kick my own kids into shape.  So and so is doing such and such--you better work harder!

Lead us not into temptation.  I know better than to think this way.  I still have to stop and reflect.

We are born with only one obligation--to be completely who we are.  Yet how much of our time is spent comparing ourselves to others. . . This is encouraged as necessary in the pursuit of excellence.  Yet a flower in its excellence does not yearn to be a fish, and a fish in its unmanaged elegance does not long to be a tiger.  Yet when we compare ourselves to others, we see neither ourselves nor those we look up to.  Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening, pages 11-12.  

Left unchecked, the next step is to make ourselves feel better and the quickest and easiest way to do that is to diminish the object of our comparison.  Really--their program isn't that great--look how those kids are turning out--there must be something we can find wrong with them . . . see. . . they have pimples! 

I remind myself that I am the perfect parent for my children.  Our family experience is completely unique from any other family's experience.  As it should be.  As every family's life is. Yes, we can reflect and tweak our values from time to time, but the big picture is under control.

So, when we reflect, let us take motivation from the best of those around us, but lead us not into the temptation to compare our children.  A flower may not go to Harvard and a fish may not be a concert pianist and a tiger may not be a college athlete but let them be the very best flower and fish and tiger as they were created to be.